


Can I Tell You…?

by mm8



Category: Torchwood
Genre: Friendship, Gen, Secrets
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-22
Updated: 2012-12-22
Packaged: 2017-11-21 23:56:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,452
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/603474
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mm8/pseuds/mm8
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's New Years Eve and Ianto has the Hub all to himself… or so he thought.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Can I Tell You…?

He straightened all the postcards for the tenth time and organized the brochures so they were in alphabetical order. Ianto Jones knew that the rest of the team has left nearly forty minutes ago on Gwen's orders, and he had seen Gwen herself leave about 10 minutes ago on CCTV. Since it was New Years Eve, none of them would be back until the morning, staying up to welcome the New Year, 2008. It was his habit to look busy for at least twenty minutes after the last person left in case someone came back. He didn't want any of the team to witness his after work ritual. He checked his pocket watch again. There was still time left before the safety period was up. But God, was he bored. You can only dust the commemorative Cardiff Bay plates so many times in a forty minute time span before it drove you nuts. _Hmmm…_. Go against his usual habit and finally relax or die of insanity and be found by Tosh or Gwen in the morning clutching a duster and drooling? Ianto shifted his gaze from the wall of commemorative plates to his desk where his hidden stash of James Bond movies were. _Oh, the decision…_

An hour later, he was a quarter way through Dr. No. He had removed his shoes and jacket and rolled up his shirt sleeves. His feet were on top of the desk, a large bowl filled to the brim with popcorn was settled on his lap. His mind began to wander as it usual did during times of relaxation. Ianto thought of his Da, who was the one who introduced him to James Bond. His mind flashed on imagines of his childhood family room. He and his Da were watching Goldfinger on the telly and his Da was trying to teach him how to do a James Bond accent. He frowned. Jack would always make fun of him for his James Bond impressions. He had said they weren't 'swank' enough. Ianto really missed Jack…

At the corner of his eye he caught a movement at the front door. The popcorn bowl went flying as he jumped to his feet, gun in hand pointing at the intruder.

"Ianto Jones, what if I was a customer?" Toshiko Sato shrieked.

Ianto sighed as he lowered his gun and tucked it away. "They'd see the 'Sorry, We're Closed' sign and shove off. So none of this," he gestured to the air between them, "would have happened. What are you doing here Tosh?"

She sheepishly shifted her weight and avoided his eyes. "Well, the lights went out at my flat, you see. And you know how boring things can be when you're in a blackout by yourself. And I remembered that I had some rather important work to finish up here. So…" she lifted her arms, "here I am."

 _Oh Tosh…_ Ianto whimpered in his head. She was such a horrible liar. Of course Tosh hadn't considered in her thought process that Torchwood Three could have unlikely, but could have been caught in the blackout as well. And that the Torchwood computers could easily tell if there had or had not been a blackout in the city at all. But Tosh was brilliant, and would have figured all of that out eventually and hacked into the computers and changed the data and no one would have been the wiser. Brilliant Tosh.

"Well, come on in." Ianto shrugged. "Do you want some coffee? Tea? If you'd like any popcorn you'll have to wait until I make a new batch."

Toshiko rushed forward, waving her arms in protest. "No, no, that's not necessary." She bent down and began to pick up popcorn.

Ianto gave her an exasperated look. There wasn't going to be any argument.

Fifteen minutes later, the wreckage of the popcorn was cleared away and Ianto had popped several more bags to fill his enormous bowl. He had made a fresh pot of coffee for the two of them to share. Toshiko and he sat on opposite sides of his desk, as if he the expert and she the customer, sipping the coffees; Dr. No was on as background noise, almost mute. They were silent for a few minutes. Really, what was there to say?

She cleared her throat. "So what were you doing here, Ianto? Gwen sent us home to be with family."

Ianto smiled weakly behind his cup of coffee. "You know me, Tosh. First to come in, last to leave." He really didn't want to tell Toshiko that he didn't really _have_ any family, not anymore. His father had died years ago, and the rest of the family had practically disowned him for going off to London after the funeral. He hadn't been in contact with his mother or his sister for years. He wasn't sure if his mother was even still alive.

They fell silent again. The only sounds that filled the room were the slurps of coffee and James Bond saving the day. 

Tosh set her cup down on the saucer with a clink. "I lied to you before."

"I know." Ianto nodded.

She looked up in surprise, as if she thought her lie had been foolproof. "All the family I have are in Japan," she admitted, "And I'm not really close with those relatives. So New Years is…"

"Lonely?" Ianto suggested, knowing exactly how she felt. 

His co-worker nodded. "Sounds incredibly lame, I know. If you were Owen I'm sure you'd be having a laugh right now." She smiled sadly.

Ianto grimaced and reached his hand across to Toshiko's. "I'm not Owen."

"I know."

"In fact," he said, trying to make his voice sound light, "if I remember correctly, I shot the little prick in the shoulder not too long ago. I could shoot him again if you like… only I could aim much lower."

Tosh let out a low chuckle, covering her mouth with her hand as if she was slightly ashamed to be laughing at Owen's expense. "Thank you, Ianto," she said graciously. "I needed a good laugh on a night like this."

He smiled. "Think nothing of it."

"Can I tell you something? A secret?" she whispered, her voice sounded doubtful, as if she was scared of what his answer was going to be.

"Of course, Tosh," he replied with confidence. Ianto had no idea why she would want make a confession out of the blue and to him. They had become closer friends during the past few months but…

She set down her cup and saucer on his desk and settled back in her desk, hands resting in her lap. "Do you know the reason the Torchwood Institute was created by Queen Victoria?"

Ianto nodded tentatively.

"Tell me. Just so I know we're on the same page."

"She saw a werewolf firsthand and wanted an institution to protect Great Britain against aliens, werewolves, vampires, you name it. "

Toshiko's lips formed a thin line as if this answer was not completely satisfactory. "And who is supposed to be Torchwood's number one enemy?"

"The Doctor…" they answered together.

Silence filled the air between them. _Dr. No_ hummed in the background. 

"Tosh," Ianto asked as gently as possible, "was there a point to that little exercise? Besides testing me on my Torchwood history?"

"I've met him."

Ianto's body tensed up. "What? What do you mean? Met him?"

"I met him. Or at least I'm fairly certain I have."

Defensively, he crossed his arms over his chest. "When?"

"Do you recall when 10 Downing Street was destroyed?"

Ianto nodded. He'd been a fairly new recruit to Torchwood One then. He remembered there had been whispers around the archives that they had something to do with the explosion in the sky, but of course no one could confirm it. 

"I was there. Well, not _there_ there. I mean I wasn't there when 10 Downing Street exploded or anything. But I was… _there_. Remember that a spaceship crashed into the Thames? Well they called us in to look at the alien. Owen had a hangover so… I went in his stead. "

Ianto was surprised. Nobody had told him any of this. It wasn't even in any of the files… 

"That's when I met him, you see. The Doctor. That's what he introduced himself as anyway. Not really that he introduced himself properly." She chuckled to herself. 

"I had to pretend that I was naïve and didn't know what an alien looked like... Oh," she smiled. "I'm sorry. Skipped the part about the actual aliens putting an alien brain into a pig, did I?" 

Her expression calmed. "I only knew him for a few minutes but he was able to teach me so much. He had such compassion for that dead pig…" She hrmphed. "I know it must sound silly to you. But in that moment…" Toshiko shook her head. "And then he was gone. I was asking him a question, and I turned around and he was gone. I heard a funny noise too. A strange, whirling, humming sound. " Her eyes seemed to glaze over as she become lost in thought for a few seconds. "And I never saw him again."

She sighed and slapped her thighs. "Well, that's my secret. As insane as it sounds." Tosh gave a weak laugh.

"No, it's not crazy, Tosh." Ianto grimaced. "I know you met the Doctor. That sounds exactly like him."

Toshiko raised an eyebrow. "Have you met him too, Ianto?" Her voice was full of hope.

He shook his head. "No, but Jack has. Jack doesn't shut up about the Doctor. And the guy you just described sounds just like him." Ianto took a proper look at Toshiko. She seemed worn-out, on her last thread… Maybe… maybe…

He leaned back in his chair and crossed his legs."Should I tell you a secret, Tosh?"

She waved her hands in protest. "No, that's not necessary!"

Ianto took a sip of his coffee. _Better get over with it now_ , he thought. "I've been sleeping with Jack and I think I'm in love with him."

If Toshiko had been the one to take a sip of coffee, there would have been a lot of it sprayed all over Ianto Jones right then. Tosh's mouth had practically fallen in her lap.

"That shocked are you?" Ianto took another sip.

"Well, I—" Toshiko attempted to form some sort of a sentence. "I assumed _something_ must have been going on since the… since the…"

"Since when Jack came back from the dead he kissed me in front of everyone?" Ianto suggested for her.

"Yes…" She smacked her own lips together. "How exactly did I miss the fact that you were sleeping together?"

He smiled, amused. "Jack _lives_ in the Hub and I'm always the first to come in, last to leave… No one thinks of it because I'm the 'Tea Boy'," the words were grit in his mouth. "And Jack is our leader and is here all the time as well." He winked at her. "Plus, we erased the footage from CCTV."

He waited as Tosh's brow furrowed; she seemed to be taking all the information in. 

"But what about…" Toshiko bit her lip as if she didn't want the words to come out. "Everyone thought you two hated each other after the whole thing with Lisa."

Ianto shut his eyes. He didn't like remembering that period of his life. It was bleak and dismal. He had thought his only beacon of hope had been Lisa. She would get better and everything would go back to normal. But everything had gone wrong, the Cyberman took control and the team found out his secret. He had been on suspension for four weeks after that. He couldn't eat, couldn't sleep. He lost nearly twenty pounds off his already thin frame. He probably would have died if not for Jack. Maybe it was out of pity or responsibility for his team, but Jack took care of Ianto during his suspension. Made sure he ate good meals, got out of his flat every once in a while and had a good night's sleep. That's when they had their first kiss… in the park…

"We were walking on egg shells for a while," Ianto finally admitted to Toshiko, who was waiting patiently for an answer. "But after all the time we spent together on the job… we just got close. It just happened."

"Ah," she finally replied and smacked her lips again. "So what's it like? Sleeping with Jack?"

Ianto let out a heavenly sigh. 

"That good?" Toshiko smiled brightly. "Hold on." Her eyes widened. "You said you were…"

"In love with Jack." Ianto frowned. 

"That's great!" She beamed. 

"No, it's not," he retorted.

Toshiko now frowned. "Why not? Jack's handsome, witty, charismatic, and obviously good in bed—"

"He doesn't love me back."

Toshiko shook her head and waved her hand dismissively. "Oh, of course he does. I've seen how he looks at you."

A flash of hope whipped through Ianto's mind. Maybe Jack did love him back… "Tosh, how could you notice? You didn't know we were shagging," he demanded.

"Woman's intuition" she replied with a smile. "What makes you think he's _not_ in love with you?"

Ianto bit his lip and curled up his fist. He really didn't want to tell Tosh anything further. "Oh, I don't know…"

"Yes you do. You're clever, Ianto. If you didn’t know you wouldn't have said a word."

He smiled weakly. "I'd rather not talk about it." Ianto didn't want to break her image of _her_ Doctor, her _sweet_ , Doctor. He didn't want to tell her Jack was in love with the Doctor but fucking him, using him. And Ianto was a sad sap and had fallen in love with Jack.

"Sorry." Tosh apologized. Her eyes were sad. "I'm sorry if I pushed you Ianto. I didn't—"

He held up his hand. "Think nothing of it." 

They continued to sit in a comfortable silence once more, sipping on their coffees and watching Dr. No.

"I don't understand this, Ianto." Toshiko finally said, her voice full of question.

"Hm?" Ianto kept his eyes on the screen.

"What…" Toshiko shook her head in bewilderment, "is going on in this film? It doesn't make any sense."

Ianto spluttered. "Excuse me?"

"Well, why on Earth did this woman show up on a deserted island searching for sea shells? And why are they in a fight? Seems all special effects to me… And what happened to the special agent that went missing? What happened to that plot?"

As Toshiko and Ianto debated the plot of Dr. No the people of Cardiff rang in the New Year.

**Author's Note:**

> * Kudos are amazing and I will never stop asking for them, but getting comments, actual feedback from readers means so much. Taking five seconds out of your time can really make my day.
>   
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> * You can follow me on [tumblr](http://mm8fic.tumblr.com/).
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